Capitol View: September 26, 2010 Archive

Census expert: MN won't lose a seat in Congress

Posted at 5:02 PM on September 26, 2010 by Tom Scheck
Filed under: Campaign 2010, Campaign 2010: Minnesota Governor, Campaign 2010: U.S. House, U.S. House

A new study based on projected Census population figures shows Minnesota will likely keep all eight of its current U-S house seats.

The 435 U-S house seats are divided between states based on population. Last year, estimates projected Minnesota to lose a congressional seat to Missouri. But Kimball Brace of Virginia-based Election Data Services says the new estimates show Missouri will instead likely lose a seat to Minnesota.

And Brace says that's a fortunate finding for Minnesota.

"When you're in a losing situation you have less members pushing your kind of issues that may be important to members of your state. And it becomes more difficult to have the kind of issues that you think are important brought up by congress and passed in terms of legislative initiatives."

Brace cautions that we won't know for sure if Minnesota will keep all its seats until final Census numbers come out in late December.

"The addition of the military overseas could have an impact," he said. "Particularly in your state where there's not a lot of military overseas from Minnesota."

(H/T Rupa Shenoy)